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In this 35th edition of As We Leave, Ritick Gupta, a Y20 student from the department of Electrical Engineering, shares his heartfelt journey at IIT Kanpur. Through his experiences in the Music Club, friendships, academic challenges, and personal growth, Ritick paints a vivid picture of campus life, emphasizing the importance of seizing every opportunity and making unforgettable memories
Disclaimer:- The views presented below are the author’s own and are not in any manner representative of the views of Vox Populi as a body or IIT Kanpur in general. This is an informal account of the author’s experiences at IIT-K.
“It’s 10 in the morning. I am alone in my dorm, sitting beside my bed and thinking of all the hardest goodbyes over the past two days. All my best friends have left except one more, who is leaving today. Meanwhile, a gentle wind flows through the empty corridor, entering my room and waving my messy hair. I could hear the rustling of the leaves which reminded me of the days we spent together at the same place, screaming, laughing, fighting and enjoying ourselves together like never before. The corridor was never that quiet before and it seemed as if it was insisting me to call my friends back to slam on their doors, run around, shout and make this place lively. I went deep into my thoughts to where this journey started.”
Hey there!
I am Ritick, you might have seen me walking past OAT with a guitar bag and a bag pack. Some might recognise me through MClub, my obsession with Guitars, some know me through my voice, some call me a seriousness breaker and I am also known for producing noise pollution at times. Yes, it’s from the high gain stuff ofc 😉
These 4 years of my stay at IITK were majorly shaped by my friends and my interests. The beginning was overwhelming for all of us due to the well-known “pandemic” but yes, we all survived. We heard our seniors talking about their bucket lists during their stay at campus, for us going to campus was itself the first item on our list.
It was finally in December 2021, the first item on our bucket list was checked out. The joy of experiencing the campus in real life could be seen on everyone’s faces. We were already sophomores but behaved like freshers, took pictures of almost everything we saw around, roamed around, made new friends, and enjoyed our new hostel lives.
I had known many people during my online semesters within the wing, my branch and the club but I didn’t have many close friends. The first person with whom I started to spend most of my time was Manas, he was the one who introduced me to most of the people whom I know now.
Yes, he was also the roommate of our responsible neta Sheeshram.
We all spent most of the time together struggling to manage loads of things at once.
Days passed, we grew up, got wise and began to settle. It was this time when we had to decide on which group we wanted to continue from now on. I was involved in various clubs/societies like IITK Motorsports, Music Club, Drams, Udghosh and whatnot. In the online mode, all of them were much easier to handle but offline we had to be physically present. In the end, I had to choose just one of them. After a lot of thought, I finally continued to Music Club as I loved playing Guitar since my childhood.
The Music Club
The first thing which I wanted to do as soon as I reached campus was to perform on the OAT stage. Well, it was the time, the music club opened after 2 years of lockdown and we got to meet our club members in person.
Everyone had the excitement to witness live performances again and were tired of doing online covers. Most of us participated in our first offline Musical Extravaganza ’22, we experienced the rigour of the run-throughs and understood that the club was much more than we anticipated. Finally, I got to feel the stage again after so many years and yes, the experience was surreal.
I will never forget those Chai and Parathas after the run-throughs till 4 in the morning when everyone was exhausted and also had an 8 am class. The stage fear that kicked in when you are about to take the first note on your guitar with your friends in the audience waiting to listen to a song, they won’t even understand was just a unique experience.
Events like Inter IIT, Mood Indigo and Synchronicity added to the overall flavour of the MClub because that was a time when we also had a chance to make “Our Music”.
I remember we had around 10 days left for MoodI, most of the band members were still enjoying their holidays and our Original Composition was yet to be made. When everyone was back, we had to work 18hrs straight for a week to accomplish that. I would still remember Aarush giving us some 3 & 5 polyrhythm with a weird notation on drums which was conclusively a 4-4 with some accents. Me and Anisurya pondered on it for a long time just to transcribe it on our guitars while Akshat was sleeping on the keyboard as we didn’t have anything else to add to our song.
The whole prep gave me an understanding of how difficult it is for an Artist to make a full-blown song. To be honest, our final song was actually the 5th iteration of 5 completely different songs, coz why not 😉
My stay on campus was hugely influenced by the Music Club. I got to meet amazing folks like Shivang who was always ready to fight with me and at the same time, was always there for me. I met amazing juniors like Raghav, Vedant and Rajat who had an amazing heart. I got to meet Agam and Rajit who were always ready to organize a football match, even after late run-throughs. Agam literally made an amazing poster for our last club football match.
MClub was the place where I got to interact with my batchmates, seniors and juniors. It didn’t only shape me as a musician but also gave me the skill of time management. Of course, in the initial stages, I suffered a bit but later I got a hold of it. The club gave me a platform to outshow my musical abilities, interact with other musicians, expand my taste and knowledge of music.
I am so grateful to everyone who was there as part of my journey at the Music Club, IIT Kanpur.
Acads
My days were mostly occupied with Classes in the morning, my friends in the evening and the Music Club at night. Well, I realised a bit late that I didn’t even consider keeping track of my studies which was the first motive of coming to campus.
The acquaintance of the dreadful 4th semester of Electrical Engineering still hits me. Most of my friends were on the same page, sacrificing their acads due to their commitments. Of course, we all suffered with the grades but then we all had to make some tough decisions regarding our commitments which helped us in smoother semesters henceforth.
Across the semesters, I got a chance to explore a bunch of things. One of them is Research. When I was a child, I remember the Director of my school asking me once about what I would do in future to make her proud and I answered her by saying that I wanted to discover something new. Listening to this, she giggled a bit while my friends laughed heavily. Well, I got a chance to do something similar, it’s not much of a discovery but yes, it is of course some unique addition to the present literature.
As a part of my coursework, I have done various UGPs under my Professor, Dr. Twinkle Tripathy from Electrical Engineering itself. She was the one who guided me throughout my research journey, and I am blessed that I got such a nice professor who made my own Research Paper possible.
Ma’am is the one who taught me to believe in my abilities and I would always admire how humble and calm she is.
Well, the curious ones can access our paper here: ACC 2023, IEEE Xplore
Friends
As the semesters passed, I began to know myself better and discovered new people. We were initially a group of four friends struggling with the subjects, skipping classes, making mistakes, learning and moving forward together. Later, our group expanded and I got to meet some amazing people. I must say that I have one of the most diverse groups of people who complement each other in one or the other way. Someone is totally a tubelight (no offence 🙂 ) while someone is just next level. One is understanding while the other is just a free bird. Someone is always cheerful while the other one is always overthinking and millions of similar such combinations.
I will always remember how unique our birthdays were, the cake was not even allowed to be touched by the birthday boy and snatched by hands. Well, those dreadful GPLs are always a must, in addition to that, one of my friends had his butt on fire with an aerosol alongside the chappals. I won’t even forget that “Completely Random Guy” whom I met in my 6th semester. These Azeeb folks almost convinced me to be the Dulhan for “Hall 1 Ki Barat” and were even ready to wear saris. I won’t forget Wardhan for what he did to my graffiti. Those fights with Manas about his so-called “Noise Pollution”, my Lappu sa Sachin and Umesh who was the saviour would always be remembered.
I am grateful to have these folks with me, they are the ones who complete my heart and we are the strongest together. The fact that the solution to any of your problems is just a doorstep away will be the most valuable thing which would be missed about campus.
I must say that IITK is the best place I have ever been, the people, the environment, the vibe and the opportunities make this place invaluable. The most important thing which I have learnt is that there are no limits to what people here can do. People here don’t settle and always experiment with their limits. They keep growing and once in a while, you can always find someone who has just accomplished something amazing.
I got to learn a lot from these people and would suggest that if you ever find someone like that, go forward and interact with him/her. You would always be enlightened with something new from which you can learn and grow.
It’s always better not to sit all day inside your room or be in the library the whole day. Roam around, and explore various clubs, games and teams because it’s the people who would help you grow faster as there might be someone or the other who would have excelled in the same thing you are doing right now. Learn from them, ask them and pass on the same to your juniors.
There’s a lot more to write about the plethora of experiences we all have had but still I would like to conclude my not-so-interesting AWL by saying that,
“Think wisely and be decisive about each step you take because in the end, it’s you who can make these four years count.”
Thank you
Written by: Ritick Gupta
Edited by: Saatvik Gundapaneni, Nandini Vaid
Designed by: Sanyam Shivhare
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